A main feature of this counter is the ability to use many different
styles of digits. The counter.zip file comes with some digits
that look like an LED readout - here's an example:

You may want to download these other styles to use. Please see the
installation instructions and the usage
instructions below on how and where to unzip these. Note that
the LED style is already included in counter.zip.

After downloading counter.zip, you should unzip the file in your /cgi-bin
or /cgi-shl directory (see the FAQ
if you don't know what I mean here). You should unzip it with
the "Use Directory Names" checkbox checked if you are using WinZip 6.0,
or with the -d option if you are using PKUNzip, to preserve directory
names. The following directories and files are created:

/cgi-bin (or /cgi-shl)
The counter also creates the file counter.dat to keep
track of data and uses the file lock.od as a semaphore.
Windows NT users note: Make sure the counter has read/write
permissions in the /cgi-bin directory.

If you downloaded other styles, unzip them in the same way as above.
New directories under the /digits directory will be created.

Edit the counter.cfg file with Notepad

Under the [No-Increment-For] section, enter the
host name and IP address of each computer that you do not want the
counter to count as a visit, one per line. If you want the counter
to count every visit, leave this section blank (but
do not delete the [No-Increment-For] line).

Under the [Allow-Access-To] section, enter the
host name, all aliases and IP addresses for each computer and
server that you will allow to create links on your server.
Unauthorized
people trying to create a link will get this message instead:
. If you want to allow access to
everyone (an unwise decision, but...) then just put a single
period in this section.

Proceed to the usage instructions and use the counter on a test page to try it out.
Try hitting "Reload" a couple of times to make sure it increments.

Uniquely identifies the page calling the counter. This
is case-sensitive. See examples below.

width

0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 or 9

The width of the resulting image in digits. Extra zeros will be added to the
beginning. If the width is too short for the number to be displayed, it is lengthened
so that all digits may be displayed. Default is 4.

style*

any directory name under the /digits directory, for example,
led, or the reserved value simple. Should not contain spaces

Specifies the set of digits to use in constructing the final image, or
specifes the use of the simple style 1.
Should be all lower-case

ord

yes or no (must be lowercase).

If ord=yes, an ordinal number will be
outputted 2.
An ordinal number is a number like 345th, 10871st, 22nd, etc.
The default is no

bgcolour

RRGGBB or trans

When using the simple style, specifies the background colour of
the image, or if trans is used, specifies a transparent background.
RRGGBB should be 3 2-digit hex values in one string, similar to the
HTML command

<BODY BGCOLOR="RRGGBB">

. This argument has no
meaning when style does not equal simple. The default is
000000 (black).

fgcolour

RRGGBB

When using the simple style, specifies the foreground colour
of the image. Same format as bgcolour. The default is
FFFFFF (white).

inc

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5

Determines how much to increment the counter. Using
0 means the counter will not increment. Using a value
less than 0 will result in no increment. Using a value
greater than 5 will result in an increment of 5. If you
are calling from a computer specified in the [No-Increment-For]
section of counter.cfg, this argument has no effect.

2To use ordinal numbers, you need to have GIFs called th.gif,
st.gif, nd.gif and rd.gif in your /digits/X/
directory, where X is the style name. Only the LED style comes with these extra
GIFs: you will have to create some for the other styles. If you use
the simple style, you can always use ordinal numbers if you wish.

Examples
Here are some examples of using the counter. You should change /cgi-bin/
to the name of your server's CGI directory if different.

S: 1) Are you using EMWACS
or Purveyor?
2) Try right-clicking on the broken-image icon and selecting "View this image as..."

It says "URL Not Found"
Then you either put counter.exe in the wrong spot, or you mistyped something in
your HTML.

It asks whether or not I want to save counter.exe!?It asks if I want to configure a viewer for type application/octet-stream!?
The you haven't told your server that the /cgi-bin directory is special,
that .exe files there should be executed, not downloaded. Consult your
manual or this FAQ.

It says "Server Misconfiguration"
Consult your manual on how to configure your server.

whether or not there is a file called counter.err, or counter.dat, and if there
is/are such (a) file(s), what do(es) it/they say?

your counter.cfg file

P: I get an error message.

S: In your /cgi-bin directory, there should be a file
called counter.err. Use a text editor to look at this file: it contains detailed
information about the error.

P: The counter won't increment

S: You are using a computer that is in the [No-Increment-For]
section of counter.cfg. Either change this file (see installation instructions) or change computers.

P: I get

S: Look at the "Location" field in Netscape. It should be
something like this: http://X/.... Now look at counter.cfg
and make sure that X is listed in the section [Allow-Access-To]
Also make certain that when creating links you are using Netscape 1.1 or greater!
Other browsers do not supply the HTTP_REFERER information
used to conrol link creation.

P: My server has been crashing regularly since I started
using your counter

S: 0) Read the disclaimer.
1) If you are using WebSite, delete all the *.in and *.out
files in \TEMP
2) Try using the simple style to decrease the counter's execution time.None of those helps
3) Make sure you aren't allowing access to the whole Internet. See installation instructions.
4) counter.cfg or counter.dat may have been correupted. Delete counter.dat
(all counters will go to zero) and inspect counter.cfg
5) Buy more RAMYeah, right
6) Remove the counter.Still crashes
7) Then it wasn't the counter: it was something else.

Look for the link that you use for that page, and edit the corresponding hits entry.
Be careful! There should only be one space between the link name and the number.
Also, if you manually add or delete links, make sure that the first line
accurately reflects the number of links there are, and that there are no
gaps between lines.

Q: How do I create my own styles?

A: Simply create 10 GIFs, one for each digit. They must all
be the same size. Save them as \digits\X\0.gif, \digits\X\1.gif,
etc. where X is the style name you want to use (except for simple). Style names may not have
spaces, and are limited to 64 characters. You may use transparent GIFs as long
as the transparent colour is the same in all 10 GIFs. If you want to use ordinal numbers
with this style, you must also create files \digits\X\th.gif, \digits\X\st.gif,
\digits\X\nd.gif, and \digits\X\rd.gif. They must be the same size
as the digits and should say, respectively, "th", "st", "nd", and "rd".

Q: How can I keep track of hits without having a visible counter?

A: Not sure why people want to do this, but anyway:
In your <img src="...">, put height=1 width=1.

Q: How can I get my web page to load faster when I'm using a counter?

A: You should specify the height and width of the image. Each digit
in these style are 15x20, so width = 15*(# of digits displayed) and height = 20. Now
put this in your HTML: <img height=20 width=X src="/cgi-bin/...">

Q: I'm using the simple style, but I can't change the background/foreground
colour?

A: 1) Did you spell bgcolour and fgcolour correctly? (Americans note the U).
2) If it uses the default colour (black for background, white for foreground) then you didn't
specify 3 two-digit hex numbers. Remember that it goes RRGGBB (Red, Green, Blue).

Q: How accurate is the counter?

A: The counter increments everytime it is loaded. It is not loaded when:

People with non-graphical browsers see your page.

People are not autoloading images

People hit "Stop" before it gets loaded.

People look at your page with certain browsers that do not like .exe files in img tags.